Re: Amusing, yet scary...

The responses from the bourbonsphere are great.

It will be interesting to see if there's an influx of wine speculators trying to grab sought after bourbon for their portfolios. I'm sure they'll bug the hell out of shops that carry wine and spirits but will they make the effort at shops with no wine? I've found obtaining the hard to get is more building a relationship or luck than anything else. If someone wants to pay 3x retail they're welcome to whatever they can get from the d-bag profiteering on it. I guess I don't see myself competing for bottles with those willing to overspend as they're buying stuff I won't. I'm not thrilled that the wine speculator coming to bourbon might drive prices even higher but bourbon speculators have already done it. I welcome wine folks interested in giving bourbon a try. The more the merrier. Just don't be a d-bag.

Re: Amusing, yet scary...

Originally Posted by VAGentleman

I really don't understand all the harshness and hand wringing over this. I read the article and he never said he was an expert at bourbon. He was interested in it, gave it a try, liked it and wanted to share some thoughts. He admitted his reviews were off the cuff. Reading through them, they were actually pretty decent on their descriptions. Yes he mentioned the bottles and made some typos etc but he actually reviewed the taste. He did way better than most of my reviews and a lot of others I've seen on here. If his notes entice others to try bourbon why is that a bad thing? I may not agree with the scores he gave some of the bourbons but then again I don't agree witha lot of the reviews I see on here. As people note YMMV.

Originally Posted by LiveFromLou

Right, I read this article as having been written by someone who admits to being a bourbon outsider giving their opinion on their first experiences with bourbon. He never claims to be a bourbon expert, so we should cut him some slack. I also think he's used to having an editorial staff fix his typos and do some research for him. I imagine he did this himself at home without said staff. Granted, on my blog, I proofread 3 times before hitting publish, but not everyone is a grammar nazi like me.

If he is a bourbon outsider then he should have shared it with his friends. As to harshness when he chose to publish it in his PAID subscription service, knowing full well what his level of influence is and that he would be perceived as providing expert commentary no matter how he chose to preface it (after all several people have noted he is not a fool, his bourbon post not with standing, and I have no reason to believe otherwise) then he should expect the scorn and ridicule being leveled at him when he shows he is out of his element (which he probably doesn't think is the case anyway). I pay little attention to either Parker or wine normally but I would not be at all surprised if he has hurled the occasional bit of ridicule and scorn upon someone he feels is not at his level in the wine industry that dares to try to speak about wine or contradicts him on that subject.

As to hand wringing, for me at least that is more the amusing part. it is tongue in cheek hand wringing at most. I can't change the direction the whiskey biz is currently headed and the impact this has is likely to be relatively minimal on me in the grand scheme of things anyway. At this point I don't really want more people to have to compete with for these scarce but desirable resources but it is certainly possible that this kind of thing will only add to the problem. It certainly isn't going to alleviate it! But there isn't much of anything I can do about it. I will just keep my head down and keep trying to make friends in useful places.

That yella whiskey runnin' down my throat like honey dew vine water and I took another slash…

Re: Amusing, yet scary...

Originally Posted by tanstaafl2

If he is a bourbon outsider then he should have shared it with his friends. As to harshness when he chose to publish it in his PAID subscription service, knowing full well what his level of influence is and that he would be perceived as providing expert commentary no matter how he chose to preface it (after all several people have noted he is not a fool, his bourbon post not with standing, and I have no reason to believe otherwise) then he should expect the scorn and ridicule being leveled at him when he shows he is out of his element (which he probably doesn't think is the case anyway). I pay little attention to either Parker or wine normally but I would not be at all surprised if he has hurled the occasional bit of ridicule and scorn upon someone he feels is not at his level in the wine industry that dares to try to speak about wine or contradicts him on that subject.

I agree with you. It seems that the more popular bourbon and American whiskey gets, the more people have to weigh in with their opinion from guys like Parker all the way down to novices who it seems just discovered bourbon last fall. I'd say probably once a week I see a new website, blog, or YouTube review focusing on whiskey, most of them pretty bad. I do see potential sometimes, but maybe some folks are a little too eager to get in the game and could spend more time reading instead of writing.

Re: Amusing, yet scary...

Originally Posted by Alden

He is a HUGE celebrity in the wine world. It would behoove some of you to read more about him. Parker is no dummy.

Writing what he wrote with zero research..I contend he is a dummy in many ways..and a lot of what he wrote doesn't even make sense. Unless he did it with a purpose, which is always a possibility. I suspect he is arrogant enough to think that he didn't need no stinking research. The U.S. is full of people like that, people who are successful and well known in one field (e.g.acting) and somehow think this makes them smarter than everyone on everything. You all see that with a lot of PhDs..they somehow think that the sheepskin in their field makes them an expert in everyone other field as well.

Re: Amusing, yet scary...

Originally Posted by weller_tex

Writing what he wrote with zero research..I contend he is a dummy in many ways..and a lot of what he wrote doesn't even make sense. Unless he did it with a purpose, which is always a possibility. I suspect he is arrogant enough to think that he didn't need no stinking research. The U.S. is full of people like that, people who are successful and well known in one field (e.g.acting) and somehow think this makes them smarter than everyone on everything. You all see that with a lot of PhDs..they somehow think that the sheepskin in their field makes them an expert in everyone other field as well.

Oh I agree, he's as arrogant as they come, and just arrogant enough to do something like this, fully knowing that the wine afficianados who likewise know next to nothing about bourbons will follow him where ever he goes.

​

He made himself another drink and thought how much better the Perrier was than anything else you could put in whisky... Hemingway